


Harry Wins a War

by ladyroxanne21



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gay Marriage rights, M/M, Mpreg, gay pride parades
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 15:14:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14792894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyroxanne21/pseuds/ladyroxanne21
Summary: When Harry decides that he wants to be married more than anything, he realizes that he needs to organize (or rather, have Hermione organize) a campaign to make this a legal option. Massive loving support ensues even as one very important person remains ambivalent about this 'battle.'





	Harry Wins a War

 

Harry had a big problem. He wanted to get married. This may not  _sound_ like a big problem, but it was because he wanted to get married to the  _man_ he loved. And that wasn't an option in the Wizarding World  _or_ the muggle one.

He talked to Hermione about it, mostly because he just wanted to whinge and moan about it. To his surprise, Hermione had some useful ideas. To her, this wasn't anything more than a problem she needed to solve.

“Well, Harry, have you considered _doing_ anything about it?”

“You mean like ask him to marry me and just have a ceremony – whether it's legal or not?” Harry questioned. Clearly, he _had_ thought about that.

“Well, yes, you could do that too, but I meant more along the lines of trying to change the law,” Hermione clarified.

“I could do that?” Harry asked incredulously.

“Why not?” Hermione rebutted with a significant look. “I'm not saying it'll be easy, but I think it's worth a try.”

“And how would I even _do_ that???” Harry wondered, baffled.

Hermione had a soft smile on her lips as she conjured up a piece of parchment and pulled a never-ending quill out of her bag. “Step one, announce to the world that you are gay.”

“What?!?! _I can't do that_!!!” Harry protested in alarm.

Hermione looked tempted to roll her eyes. “Harry, if you want to marry a man, people are going to find out you're gay.”

Harry waved his hands back and forth. “No! It's not that, I don't care if the whole world catches me wearing frilly pink knickers and singing Barbara Streisand showtunes. It's  _him_ ! I can't do that to him!”

Hermione patted his hand reassuringly. “So don't. I said tell the world that  _you_ are gay. Leave his name out of it completely.”

This made Harry stop and think for a moment. “And then what?”

“Step two: Do gay things in public.”

“Like... shag a man in the middle of Diagon Alley?” Harry asked in confusion, having no idea how that would work if he was making sure that his lover wasn't outed without his permission.

Hermione laughed and shook her head. “Probably not that over the top – although I suppose you  _could_ if you really wanted to. No. What I meant was attend a muggle Gay Pride Parade and send pictures of it to the Prophet. Perhaps organize and hold something similar for the Wizarding World. Wear a shirt that says: GAY AND PROUD OF IT! Maybe ask Molly to wear a shirt saying: MY SON IS GAY AND I LOVE HIM ANYWAY. Things like that.”

“Erm...” Harry wasn't certain this was a good idea. It sounded a lot like she was suggesting that he ask other people to fight for him.

“I'd be happy to wear a shirt that says: MY BEST FRIEND IS GAY AND I THINK HE DESERVES TO LOVE WHOMEVER HE WANTS.”

Ron piped up for the first time, quiet only because he'd been eating some fish and chips. “I could wear a shirt that said: MY BEST MATE IS GAY AND IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, BUGGER OFF!”

Harry felt his eyes go very watery as he looked back and forth between his friends. After all these years, he was still amazed that they supported him no matter what. He was actually so overcome that he couldn't speak for a long moment.

Ron decided to pretend like nothing was out of the ordinary. “You could also decide – once you're ready, no need to rush – to have a baby. Then you could walk around Diagon Alley holding a sign that asks: Doesn't my baby deserve to have two legally married parents?”

This floored Harry so much that he gasped. “ _I could do that?!?!_ ”

Hermione nodded. “Fertility potion. Not saying  _that_ would be easy either, Harry, but I know how much you want kids.”

Ron snorted in amusement. “You tried to convince Bill and Fleur to have an extra one and give it to you so that you'd have an adorable little blonde girl or a ginger boy.”

Harry flushed since this shameful behavior tended to come up whenever he was a little drunk at the Burrow on Sundays. Once tipsy, he'd drape himself all over Fleur and try to convince her that it wouldn't be a terrible idea at all to have his baby. Which sounded way worse that it actually was. Good thing Bill knew Harry was gay and didn't mean  _literally_ have his baby, just carry one for him. Especially since Harry would also cry out: “Bill! Make a baby with your wife for me!”

Then a new thought occurred to him, making him frown. “WAIT! If you both knew it was possible for  _me_ to have a baby, why didn't either of you tell me sooner?!?!”

Ron shrugged. “I thought you knew.”

Hermione nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I really thought your boyfriend would have mentioned it by now. Thus, I figured that you knew, had discussed it, and decided to wait until you were both ready.”

“Oh...” Harry murmured, biting his lip in thought. “Yeah... That makes sense. I probably would have just taken the potion and jumped into it head first, but _he_ doesn't seem to want kids... and that would have probably broken us up.”

Ron gave him a sympathetic look. “Mate... Are you  _certain_ you want to marry him? If he doesn't want kids and you plan to have them anyway, I could see that being a big problem.”

Harry sighed and yanked on his hair a bit. “I do! I really do! But... I suppose that if it came right down to it, if I had to choose between him and having kids... … … I'd probably choose the kids...”

Ron patted him on the shoulder, not really knowing what to say to that.

Harry smiled at him in thanks, and then returned his attention to Hermione. “So, let's say I did all of this, how would that help me be able to marry the man I love?”

“Well naturally, once the public is aware that you are gay and would like to get married, I can draft and submit a law to the Wizengamot making it legal. If there's enough support from the public – which in and of itself could take a rather long while – then the Wizengamot may feel they have no choice but to pass the law. That is the third step to my plan. See?” She turned the paper so that he could read what she'd written. Sure enough, it was there in bold letters, surrounded by ideas in smaller script that could help sway public opinion in Harry's favor once the potential law was introduced.

He sighed and made a rather impulsive decision. “I'm going to do it! Even if it doesn't work, what sort of Gryffindor would I be if I didn't at least try to fight for what I wanted?”

“That's the spirit!” Ron cheered, holding up his mug of ale and saluting Harry with it.

“Brilliant!” Hermione agreed. “Let me just draft a quick letter to the Daily Prophet making the announcement. Please try to remember that reporters are probably going to try to corner you to ask if it's true.”

“Yeah, I know. For once, I'm quite looking forward to it,” Harry said.

A minute or so later, Hermione handed Harry a letter to read over. It said: 

_Hi, I'm Harry Potter and I'm in the paper rather a lot for things that don't really matter. So, I figured that I'd write in about something that does matter to me. More than anything. I am gay. I'm in a longterm relationship with a man I love, but he is not comfortable in the spotlight and I ask that you respect his/our privacy. Sincerely, Harry James Potter, Order of Merlin First Class, Savior and Defeater of Voldemort._

Harry gave Hermione a rather dark look. “Did you have to add that last bit?”

“Yes,” she stated firmly. “Give everyone a reminder as to _why_ they should side with you.”

He sighed. “Fine, but I'm going to save that for when the law is actually proposed and people  _need_ the reminder.” He held out his hand, accepting the quill and a new piece of parchment from her. A few minutes later – nearly twice as long as she had taken – Harry finished copying the announcement so that it was in his handwriting with his easy to recognize signature. Not to mention magical essence.

Once done, he borrowed Pigwidgeon and sent it off to the editor of the Daily Prophet. 

As expected, he quickly received a note asking if he was serious. When he replied that he was, he received a different note saying that the editor was going to have to think long and hard before taking a risk and publishing the letter. Harry let him know that the news was  _going_ to break and that he could be the one to do it, or it could be Harry calling a press conference to tell  _all_ of the Wizarding publications at the same time.

Which actually wasn't a bad idea, now that he thought about it.

The note that came back felt like it contained a weary sigh along with the reluctant promise that the announcement would be published the next morning.

Grinning stupidly in pride, it occurred to Harry that he should probably go home and tell his boyfriend what he'd done before he read it in the paper for himself and threw an unholy strop. Harry had no illusions that he'd escape unscathed either way, just that telling him first would probably be less painful and more respectful in the long run.

 

***

 

The public was outraged and wrote in to tell the editor of the Prophet and all its readers that such news was highly inappropriate. More than a few suggested that  _that_ was the sort of information that Harry should keep to himself and not let on unless asked. Which no self-respecting British person would do as they had a sort of unofficial motto of don't ask don't tell. Harry thought that was rather old-fashioned and  na ï ve of them.

A month later, Harry dressed up in flamboyantly died rainbow trousers and tee shirt and attended an enormous muggle gay pride parade. He'd gone a step further and made a float to ride on so that he would be as obvious as possible. Hermione took about a hundred pictures, and after sorting through them, they sent the ten best to the Daily Prophet.

The editor responded by owling Harry asking if Harry wanted him murdered in his sleep – but published the photos before Harry could send them to Witch Weekly.

Harry grinned gleefully even as his boyfriend was dead certain that he'd lost the plot.

The public response to this was mixed. There were still a lot of people questioning why Harry had to shout about it. A few anonymously wrote in to congratulate and praise him for his bravery. The rest just didn't know what to say, and wrote in asking how they were supposed to respond to this.

 

***

 

Now that Harry knew that it was  _possible_ to have a baby, he begged nearly every second of the day for his boyfriend to get him up the duff. Obviously reluctant – and after quite a bit of soul searching – his boyfriend finally agreed.

Meanwhile, the entire Weasley clan took turns wearing supportive shirts approximately every fourth time they went out in public. Luna also delighted in wearing a shirt that said: HARRY POTTER IS MY FRIEND AND HE'S GAY AND I THINK THAT'S LOVELY.

Once Harry was definitely pregnant and starting to show, he announced this to the public by strutting down Diagon Alley in nothing but his favorite Doctor Who pants and a little body paint on his chest that said: BABY ON BOARD with an arrow pointing down at his bump. Reporters naturally showed up to take pictures and ask him for an interview – which he happily gave. He gushed on and on about how excited he was to be expecting a child of his very own, and how he'd always wanted kids, and how he was over the moon about being able to create new people with the man he loved.

The public  _really_ didn't know how to respond to this. A few hardcore homophobes wrote in to hurl obscenities at him. But the rest were actually happy for Harry, agreeing that he deserved to be happy and have children. They were simply ambivalent about  _how_ he was going about it. More people wrote in asking about Harry's boyfriend, and surprisingly, a lot of them wanted to know how he was taking all this public pageantry Harry was doing.

 

***

 

As Harry was nearing six months gone, which was far enough along to have a nicely rounded and obvious baby bump, but not so far along that he didn't have any energy anymore, he and Hermione organized that small Gay Pride Parade in Diagon that she had suggested. They timed it so that it would happen the weekend after she introduced the proposed change to the law.

They had no hopes that the parade would be a success. They figured that the only ones who would be  _in_ the parade would be Harry – on a float that said DEFEATER OF VOLDEMORT AND GAY FATHER TO BE – and his family and friends all wearing shirts showing their support. Still, they sent out fliers advertising the parade and let everyone know that there would be an official pig roast hosted by Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes when the parade was over. If nothing else, this might attract hungry people looking for a free dinner.

The day of the Parade arrived and Harry was shocked to find that there were actually a few other gay witches and wizards who were out and proud that came to the parade and brought floats and signs of their own. Without any sort of communication with Harry, nearly half of the dozen or so new additions to the parade had signs that matched the small one on Harry's float that asked: DOESN'T MY (Harry's) BABY DESERVE MARRIED PARENTS?

It was when he saw this and exchanged a questioning look with Hermione, that Ron grinned sheepishly and said: “So, erm, a few people asked me what the point of the parade was and I told them that it was basically a campaign to help you get married to your boyfriend. So...” He gestured around to indicate the signs.

Harry hugged him outright and gave him a big old smooch on the lips, making Ron flush from embarrassment – of public affection in general, NOT being kissed by a man.

Everyone immediately mistook this as Harry's declaration of love. The next day, an entire article speculating on why it made so much sense appeared in the Daily Prophet. Harry's campaign actually picked up a  _lot_ of support simply because most people felt that  _two_ renowned heroes of the war – who obviously had the third hero's full support –  _deserved_ to be happy. Even if it was together.

But before that, Harry had a lot more fun than he thought he would simply waving to people and chanting: LOVE ISN'T DETERMINED BY GENDER! To his surprise, he spotted his boyfriend solemnly watching him from the back of the parade, looking clearly torn between showing overt support and keeping his head down and not attracting any attention. They locked eyes for a brief moment, and... he smiled at Harry just a little bit. This made Harry feel like the sun had just burst out from behind the clouds on a stormy day.

 

***

 

On the day that the Wizengamot planned to vote on the proposed law, they were shocked to find that Harry himself stood before them  _demanding_ to know any and all possible reasons they had for denying him the chance to marry the man he loved.  _More_ shocking was that a record number of the public had come to directly watch events unfold. 

The Wizengamot didn't quite know how to react. Clearly, this was a hot topic and shouldn't be dismissed rashly. Still, they weren't inclined to vote yes either. The turning point came when Harry informed them all that he was marrying the love of his life whether it was legal or not.

This provoked his supporters to start chanting: “LET HARRY GET MARRIED!”

When the Wizengamot  _still_ hesitated to say yes, Minister Shacklebolt stood up and said: “Harry, I respect and support you in anything. Know that even if the Wizengamot votes this law down,  _I_ will give you special permission to get married anyway.”

Well that did it. There was no point in saying no if Harry was going to be given special permission no matter what. The Wizengamot caved into what seemed to be the popular demand (but only because all but a handful of staunch opposers stayed home, not realizing that they might need to voice their opinion). In a unanimous vote, they approved gay marriage for any witch or wizard in their jurisdiction who wanted it.

There was a deafening cheer that was mainly Harry and the Weasleys. They immediately invited anyone who cared to peacefully attend to go back to the Burrow to celebrate via a party Molly had organized on the off chance that it would be needed. The party was surprisingly well attended with a lot more people congratulating Harry than he expected.

And then something  _very_ important occurred to him. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked sheepishly at Ron and Hermione.

“What?” Ron asked curiously.

“I suppose this means I should probably go propose,” Harry murmured.

“Wait until you've at least had a chance to buy a ring,” Hermione advised, unconsciously waving the ring Ron had given her in his face to subtly emphasize her point.

“And you might want to put some thought into being a bit romantic or something. Set it on top of a cake or something,” Ron suggested.

Hermione snickered softly, shook her head when they looked at her questioningly, and then decided to answer after all. “ _Well,_ Harry  _did_ just win a war making it  _possible_ to get married. I'm not sure there's  _anything_ much more romantic than that!”

“True,” Ron admitted with a grin.

Excusing himself, Harry paid a visit to the Enchanted Jewelers.

 

***

 

“I didn't expect you home for hours.”

Harry grinned. “Well, the party was fabulous, but it was missing something very important.”

“Oh? What's that?”

“You,” Harry stated, pulling his lover close for a kiss. “You should have come with me from the courtroom.”

“And make everyone wonder what in the buggering hell _I_ was doing at the Weasley's?”

Harry kissed him again, and then pulled back so that he could (awkwardly) drop to one knee. He opened the box with a gorgeous gold and diamond ring and asked: “Draco Malfoy, will you marry me?”

Draco inhaled a gasp. He had no idea why he was so surprised after all of the very obvious lead up to this event, but he was. He covered his gaping mouth with a hand.

“You... you mean that? You want to _marry_ me??? You _weren't_ just fighting for equal rights because you're a bloody goody two shoes?”

Harry gave Draco a mildly sarcastic look. “Draco, I'm having your baby! Why in the bloody hell  _wouldn't_ I want to marry you?!”

“Because I'm... me...” he trailed off, looking away to hide his vulnerability. Even after everything, he couldn't quite bring himself to believe that Harry wasn't just playing with him and would tire of him eventually.

Harry grunted as he got back to his feet and pulled Draco back into his arms. “Love, I  _just_ moved heaven and Earth so that I could ask you this question and have the answer be legally binding. Er, well, the actual event.”

Draco snorted in amusement. “According to the Daily Prophet, you and your weasel are eager to tie the knot; I have nothing to do with it.”

Harry glared at him. “You  _know_ they're just trying to sell papers!”

Draco smiled and kissed Harry. Then he feigned an over-exaggeratedly sigh. “I...  _suppose_ that it would only be prudent to marry you and make our child legitimate. If I  _must_ ...”

Harry grinned at him, elated. “You must!” He pronounced as he slid the ring on Draco's finger. They ended up sealing this agreement with a kiss so passionate that they migrated to their bed and stayed there for the rest of the night.

 

***

 

The wizarding world was positively gobsmacked when Harry made an announcement in the paper that he was  _finally_ marrying the love of his life in a small ceremony in exactly one month. At Malfoy Manor. Behind centuries of strong wards. Because he didn't trust people to NOT try to burst in and hex Draco at the ceremony before Harry could make such a 'terrible mistake.'

Not funny at all, where a lot of people were willing to support him when they thought he wanted to be with Ron, they were outraged and felt beyond duped that Harry was actually planning to marry Draco. Some even started a petition demanding the law be revoked.

But Kingsley Shacklebolt made this clear and rather stern statement: “I support Harry 100 percent and will stand by my word to give him special permission to marry – no matter  _who_ he chooses.”

And that was that.

Harry and Draco were married in a not so small ceremony after all since they legitimately had a lot of people supporting them who wanted to attend and were invited. The majority were actually supporting Harry, but since Draco clearly benefited from this, he didn't complain. Much. Where anyone could hear him. Except his friends and parents. And Harry.

The most important thing though, was when Draco and Harry were standing before the Minister for Magic and vowing to love and honor each other for the rest of their lives. They sealed their commitment with a tender kiss, letting it linger for a few seconds so that at least one really good picture could be taken.

To be perverse and take a sort of sweet vengeance,  _Draco_ was the one who sorted through all their wedding photos and sent the 3 dozen best ones to the Daily Prophet, along with a letter describing the day from his perspective, which ended with:

_And so, no matter what your feelings are on the subject of my marriage, **I** am awed and amazed by this wonderful man who has shown that he has so much capacity to love that he can even love me. I promise to do my best to be a man worthy of him and the **many** children we plan to create. I hope that by sharing our special day with you, I can help you see that this was the **right** thing to do. Draco Potter-Malfoy, husband to the Savior of the Wizarding World._

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I probably made that WAY easier than it would have been in real life, but I just figured that considering that it was *Harry* asking, and that the main argument of "one man one woman because of children" was basically not able to be used at all, then perhaps those actually in charge of the law would have no legitimate reason to say no :-)


End file.
